Start-up intentions in emerging economies: examining the interplay of entrepreneurship education, self-efficacy, and perceived family support in Egypt

Abstract To tackle the issue of professional stagnation among Egyptian graduates, this research integrates the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) and the Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT), through the Stimulus–Organism–Response (S–O–R) lens, to evaluate the sequential process through which entrepreneurial education transformed into career aspirations. By adopting this integrated approach, this study identifies entrepreneurial self-efficacy as the principal agentic organism that converts academic stimuli into resilient professional goals. Using a purposive sample of 147 business and engineering students at the British University in Egypt, data were processed through hierarchical multiple regression to evaluate the direct and indirect interaction effects. The results validate the model’s substantial predictive capability ( R 2 = 0.342), identifying entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE) as the primary internal mechanism through which intentions are formed. Within this high-capital cohort, perceived family support is a normative baseline rather than a dynamic moderator of curricular impact. This evidence provides an empirical roadmap for Egypt Vision 2030, establishing that the cultivation of self-efficacy is a non-negotiable prerequisite for curricular success across both technical and non-technical disciplines. Furthermore, for students in the Egyptian private university tier, the role of formal education shifts from providing psychological motivation towards delivering the vocational education and training required to convert social capital into a manifest professional response.